Modification of wool to increase its harshness and fullness and to decrease its luster



Patented Dec. 19, 1950 UNITED STATES" PATENT EOFFICE I 2,534,314 v I ,MQDIFICATIION OF WOOL To. INCREASE ITS HARSHNESS ANDFULLNESS AND TQ pr:- CREASE ITS LUSTER Stuart E. Swanson, Hartford, Conn, assignor to Bigelow-Sanford Carpet 00., Inc., Thompson.-

ville, comp, a corporation of Massachusetts No Drawing. Application November 3, 1947, Serial No. 783,842

' 4 Claims, (01. s 95 The-present invention relates to the treatment,

of wool to improve its physical propertiesand more particularly to a treatment which will en.- hance the harshness and fullness or plumpness of the wool while at the same time decreasing its lustre.

the manufacture of pile fabric floor covering by the established operations peculiar to this field, including the carding, spinning, dyeing, etc.

of the fiber, it is necessarythat the Wool be harsh wool can be processed into pile fabric floor cove. in texture and of a bushy nature so that the fiber ering by the conventional procedures employedpossesses a certain fullness. 7 Such bushiness, with the usual carpet wools with no more than} plumpness, or fullness is also desirable-in most normal care and attention. cases in the pile tufts of the completed product,. If the wool is to be colored, it may be dyed with which also in many cases should have a low dea neutral .or direct dye before or after the treat gree of lustre. ment of this invention if it is to be dyed with an. A- y et o l is so defi i nt n the fo in c d .dy the d ng p at n mu t e comcharacteristies that it has not been possible to pleted before the wool is subjected to this modify:v process it into carpets or rugs by the established i-ng treatment, which then may be conducted as procedure and with the equipmentpresently in- 2) indicated in the foregoing firxa mple, stalled in carpet manufacturing plants which op- When the wool is treated with the aluminum crate successfully with the conventional-carpet chloridessodium thiosulfate liquor by theforegoe. wools of a harsher and plumper character. Being procedure the treating compounds are com; cause of the soft, slippery nature of theB. A; pletely or substantially completely exhausted type wools, great care and constant; attention from .thebath and the amountpf thetreating must be exercised throughout the processing of compounds taken up by the Wool can be conthe wool and the yarn and the weaving thereof. trolled by variation of the amount of the treating The resulting product is in a sense a hand-made compound included in the bath. article and commercial production by the estab- Although the amounts of modifying agent indilished practice is not feasible. cated above have been found to be effective in It is an object of the present invention to promodifying the wool in accordance with my invenvide a process for delustering, harshening and tion, I have found that the proportion of modifyplumping B. A.-type WOOls thereby to extend their ing agent present in the treating liquid is not use in the manufacture of pile fabric floor covercritical and may be varied over a substantial ings. range depending upon the degree of modification B the present invention I provide a process for to be imparted to the wool and upon the temso modifying these B. A.-type wools that the perature and the duration of the treatment. harshness and the plumpness or fullness of the Amounts of the modifying compounds ranging fiber is so increased, as contrasted with the nafrom about 1% to 15% of the weight of the wool tive, untreated fiber, that the treated wool may of each of the two compounds comprisin the be manufactured into pile fabric floor covering modifying agent, preferably about 5% of each, on a commercial scale by the conventional prohave been found advantageous. When the proccedure and apparatus with only normal attention ess is carried out at the boil, about 15% of each du g the p s ng. It is poss bl o u of the compounds is the maximum amount reture on a commercial basis pile fabric floor covquired to produce the desired results, erings consisting entirely of B. A.-type wools The treatment of the present invention is most modified by my process. useful when applied to the B. A.-type wools be- In accordance with the invention the wool, cause, in this case, it serves to convert a wool either as raw stock, or partly processed, for exwhich can be used only in minor proportions, if ample in the form of yarn, is modified by wetting at all, for the manufacture of pile fabric floor it with a solution containing a mixture of alumicoverings, into 2% W0 W can e u num chloride and sodium thiosulfate in approxistantially in the same way as the conventional mately equal proportions by weight. carpet wools. However, my treatment is also useh following i given a an example f my ful with these conventional carpet wools to enpresently preferred process: hance their qualities of harshness, and of plump- A batch of raw B. A. wool stock weighing about 900 pounds is immersed in about 4,000 gallonsof a cold aqueous solution containin .45 pounds;

of aluminum chloride and 45 pounds of sodium; thiosulfate, based on the weight of the wool, .1

The solution is brought to the boil and maintained at the boiling point for about 20 minutes. There-- after, the wool is removed from the bath, rinsed. in running tap water and dried. The treated ness and fullness which render them amenable to processing into pile fabric fioor f coverings by the established procedures and equipment. The improvement in these properties, however, is not as great infthe case of the conventional carpet wools as it is with the B. A.-type wools. The treatment is also useful with mixtures of wools of different yp Wool treated by my process may be spun into yarn which may then be woven as the pile of pile floor coverings, notwithstanding the fact that the original stock was largely or entirely a B. A.-type wool which inherently is incapable of being processed on the conventional carpet manufacturing apparatus. Such pile has a coarse harsh texture, a bushiness or fullness, and a lack of lustre far different from the texture and lustre of untreated B. A.-type wool and comparable with the texture, bushiness and lustre of the harsher conventional carpet wools.

Raw wool stock modified by m process may be mixed with conventional carpet wools in all proportions to give a wool mixture suitable for use in forming the pile of pile fabric floor coverings.

By the term B. A.-type woo as used herein, I mean wool having the characteristics of B. A. wool as regards its soft, slippery nature, its lustre and its lack of harshness and fullness as contrasted with the conventional carpet wools. I use the term "B. A. wool" in its ordinary meaning in the trade, i. e., wool from the Lincolntype sheep as grown in South America. The B. A.-type wools available today consist primarily of B. A. wool and wool from the Lincoln I sheep as grown in New Zealand.

the properties of harshness, plumpness and fullness requisite for conversion of the wool by standard procedures into pile fabric floor coverings and for decreasing its lustre which comprises wetting the wool with a solution containing approximately equal amounts of aluminum chloride and sodium thiosulfate.

2. The process as in claim 1 in which the aluminum chloride is present in an amount between about 1% and 15% of the weight of the wool.

3. The process for imparting to B. A.-type wool the properties of harshness, plumpness and fullness requisite for conversion of the wool by standard procedures into pile fabric floor coverings and for decreasing its lustre, which comprises immersing the wool in a boiling aqueous solution containing aluminum chloride and sodium thiosulfate in approximately equal amounts.

4. The process as in claim 3 in which the aluminum chloride is present to an amount between about 1% and 15% of the weight of the wool.

STUART E. SWANSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,633,213 King June 21, 1927 1,839,979 Lorimer Jan. 5, 1932 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 132,696 Austria Apr. 10, 1933 218,877 Switzerland Apr. 16, 1942 221,422 Great Britain Sept. 11, 1924 OTHER REFERENCES Dale: Mordanting W001 with Aluminum Salts. Iowa State College J. Sci., 1942, vol. 17,

pps. 49-50. Abstracted in J. Text. Inst, Oct.

1943, 1 page. 

1. THE PROCESS FOR IMPARTING TO B. A.-TYPE WOOL THE PROPERTIES OF HARSHNESS, PLUMPNESS AND FULLNESS REQUISITE FOR CONVERSION OF THE WOOL BY STANDARD PROCEDURES INTO PILE FABRIC FLOOR COVERINGS AND FOR DECREASING ITS LUSTRE WHICH COMPRISES WETTING THE WOOL WITH A SOLUTION CONTAINING APPROXIMATELY EQUAL AMOUNTS OF ALUMINUM CHLORIDE AND SODIUM THIOSULFATE. 